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Start Groupon Like Business – Daily Deals Business Startup Tips

Presently, thousands of websites are generating revenue from daily deals business model introduced by Groupon. The deal-of-the-day concept that Andrew Mason introduced in 2008 become a global phenomena. Even after so many years, it has not lost its sheen and entrepreneurs are still willing to invest in the deals idea.

However, how to get started is a major challenge. There are so many deals scripts and clone providers beating the drums of affordability & superiority that it becomes impossible to find the best one. This resource will simplify the task for you if you want to create a daily deals website.

This detailed post will cover;

Why daily deals industry is worth investing?

What kind of daily deals websites are already active in the market?

Is competition with Groupon and LivingSocial inevitable?

What is best possible way to create a daily deals website?

What is the name of best daily deals script on web?

What is best technology for daily deal platform?

So, let’s get started!

Why invest in Groupon like daily deal website?

There is a reason why any search related to ‘daily deal clone script’ renders so many optimized results. Below points will tell you why web entrepreneurs want to invest in daily deal websites;

People are looking for discounts on web

With the popularization of daily deals concept, people have started looking for discount coupons and deals online. This trend has created a huge target audience that is ready to make the purchase if you have the best deal in town. Ignoring such a potential for money making is quite difficult.

Local businesses want full-house

No restaurant owner wants its tables unoccupied just like no multiplex owner wants to run half empty movie shows. This demand of running full-house is present in every town & city of the globe. This makes daily deals websites popular amongst merchants and service providers.

Potential is humongous

Global daily deals brands like Groupon and LivingSocial expanded at lightning pace at their peak but still there are markets that have not been penetrated with the concept. This gives entrepreneurs another impetus to look for Groupon and Living Social sales script.

Scope of experimentation

The concept of daily deals is vast and offers ample scope of experimentation. You can start Groupon clone or give the idea an altogether new twist. There are deal websites catering to travel, holiday and high-end apparels. So, you can take your pick or create something new.

How many types of daily deals websites are there?

The concept of daily deals emerged with local businesses in mind but as time passed, a vast range of variations appeared. Today, there are number of options available if you think daily deals business is your thing. Following are the most popular daily deals platforms;

Travel deals websites

Fashion deals

Electronics deals

Flash sales

Secret sales of luxury brands

You can run a daily deals platform in whatever industry or sector that appeals to you. All you need is merchants willing to run deals and people ready to purchase them.

Do I have to compete with LivingSocial and Groupon like brands?

Established daily deals brands may have a worldwide network but they are not present in every city under the sun. There is fair chance that your city or chosen region hasn’t been penetrated with deals yet.

Even if it has been, you can create a niche with your unique deals idea. Your target audience will remain loyal to you if you will bring the deals they care for. Being a local and better aware about people’s needs, you certainly have a chance over competitors.

In case you come with a unique daily deals idea, there is fair chance you will not have to worry about competition.

How to start profitable Groupon daily deal website?

There are thousands of deal sites offering products and services at discounted prices but all of them is not profitable. To make a profitable deals site from Groupon, Yipit or Woot clone script, you need to take care of some important points;

Market research & study

Just like any business venture, investing in a daily deals website also requires initial market research. Demographics study, competitor analysis and various similar studies needs to be undertaken as per your business idea. Your local commerce bodies and business promotional agencies can help in gathering the information. There are also private firms that can help in undertaking market research.

Differentiate your deals website

If the market study reflects investment potential, then, next task is to think how you can differentiate your deals website. This step is very important if there already are deals brands operating in your region. This can be done by;

Focusing on limitations of your competitors.

Studying market needs closely and catering to them.

Creating a niche for yourself

Being just another Woot clone site is not going to make you the market leader in your region. It’s only by differentiating yourself that you can dominate deals business in the long run.

Which script & technology is best for daily deals based website?

Most of the daily deals websites are powered by scripts developed on open source technology like PHP, and Magento. Groupon itself was initially launched in WordPress blog format and later upgraded by a Chicago based design firm. Daily deals scripts built on open source platform offer scope of customization, feature addition and thus have gained popularity amongst deals website investors.

While readymade website solutions built on PHP scripts are very popular, some choose to invest in custom development solutions for their Groupon clone website. Affordability makes people go for readymade template based solutions but entrepreneurs looking for a unique & secure deals website choose custom development solutions.

Below are the popular daily deal clones available in the market along with strengths & limitations;

Contus group clone – This ready daily deal script has been developed by an Indian company on Magento platform. This clone comes with powerful features and functionality. Vast range of Magento extensions and themes are available to make it as per your taste. Its basic version is priced at $999.

This Groupon clone built on Magento comes with its share of limitations. Just like the open source platform, it runs slow on shared hosts. Installation too has its share of issues but overall it scores well.

GetSocio – This affordable Groupon clone script comes at a small subscription fee of $15. It is quick to install and has impressive pricing. Online reviews state that its fast installation has earned it quite a user base.

The biggest turnoff for GetSocio is its transaction fee. Almost 5% of the buyer payments go in the pocket of the deals platform if you choose the basic version. The fee however slides down as you go to higher packages but it is there even at the most premium package.

Daily deal builder – This group buying script comes with a complicated pricing. The standard package will cost you $997 plus $297 per month. The unattractive website promises attractive features but only users can tell whether it is any good or not.

Besides the towering pricing, limited payment options make Daily Deal Builder an unimpressive deal. Design limitations and support are also noteworthy.

AlstraSoft – This web development company specializes in clone platforms. Besides Groupon, it also has Fiverr and Pinterest clone scripts to its credit. The introductory presentation is quite convincing along with pricing but the solution suffers from major setbacks. Some of them being;

Using different character set is troublesome.

Plain text is not allowed in editor.

It is ridden with small bugs

Wroupon – It is a ready-made script that can be used to create clones at low price. From design and technical aspects, it is somewhat similar to AlstraSoft. It will cost you around $350 and it is a one-time fee. Its uniqueness resides in its multilingual feature.

Wroupon daily deal script comes with limited payment options. It wouldn’t make much difference if you choose Wroupon or AlstraSoft.

How to choose the best Groupon clone software?

While above listed are some popular daily deals clone scripts, there are many others that claim to be equally deserving. Some of them even are but don’t have the online presence working in their favor.

That said, there are some areas in which most daily deals script providers lag. One such is technical support and maintenance. Most such scripts were developed when there was phenomenal demand of Groupon like websites. When the demand stabilized a bit, the web development firms moved on to other projects, leaving the script buyers with support related issues.

Hurry in developing such scripts also lead to bugs and other technical glitches. You can find top daily deals clone script by paying attention to following points;

Provision of Custom design

Very few daily deal scripts come with the promise of custom design. Building your daily deals brand on a template will not give you a unique brand identity. With custom design, you can create the deals website as per your taste and requirements.

Mobile optimized

Not every daily deal script support mobile platforms. Usage of smartphones has gone up in the past years and it would be a big loss if your deal website wouldn’t offer a good experience on smaller devices. Here is brand that offers mobile optimized deals platform.

Immaculate support

As mentioned above, most daily deal script companies fail miserably in the field of support. Technical support is very important if you are new with web platforms. It simplifies troubleshooting and takes away lots of frustration.

Make sure you study the shortlisted scripts from support point of view as well.

To prosper in daily deals industry, you need to invest in a powerful deals script that comes with vast range of features. In case you are still in doubt about which script is the best, get in touch with us for friendly advice and consultation.

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